Housing in your area

[Luv2Roam]

What is the housing situation in your area?

The Orlando paper has an article about (not so) affordable housing in this area.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orl-housing1406may14,0,718484.story?coll=orl-home-headlines

The American dream is fast becoming a pipe dream for the middle class in Central Florida and throughout the Sunshine State as new data show households with incomes of $75,000 cannot afford to buy a home.

Basically the housing prices have shot up, while the income has not climbed nearly as well.

Locally, the median household income has risen about 16 percent since 2000, while the median existing-home sales price has jumped 138 percent.

A friend recently put their house on the market, as they are moving out of state. (DH accepted another job.) Their realtor told them last year at this time there were 4,000 homes for sale in Orange Co. This year -- 14,000.
Many investors thought they would buy high and sell higher. The houses are sitting empty, and have been for several months. Apartments have gone condo.
It is a buyer's market here, for certain.
Homes use to sell in a day or two. Maybe a week.
Now it takes at least a few months, with a price decrease.

Luckily, we bought a home right before the pricing shot through the roof.

What is your area like?

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Dallas MetroPlex...

Housing is climbing here. People are moving here as companies move their Headquarters here. Texas is the "new California".
So many people are cashing out and moving here from everywhere around the globe.
As a person that knew nothing about Dallas area when we moved here last year, I never in my wildest dreams would have expected to see the diversity of people that live here.

 

[Mercy]

I think it is pretty much the same here in MD. When the interest rates were at an all time low, everyone used that opportunity to make their "move". The housing prices shot up, but because the interest was so low, people could still afford the prices. Now that the interest rate is climbing, it's making it more difficult to people to afford the higher prices being asked for homes, thus they end up sitting on the market longer.

 

[AllyandJack]

In Southern NH it's going up, too. I'm so happy I bought when I did, but I have always wanted to buy 50+ acres and build a home on it. No way I'd ever be able to afford that now unless I went WAAAAY up and I don't want to do that. So, I'm just going to be thankful for the house I already built.

Like Mystery Machine said about Dallas, NH is being overwhelmed by people from MA looking for cheaper housing. It used to be the answer, but now.....not so much. I feel for people who didn't buy before this big boom. These days, unless you have a house to sell for a hefty downpayment, you really can't buy much more than a crapshack or a small condo. Either that, or get locked into one of those "alternative mortgages" which ALWAYS come back to bite you in the butt.

 

[ChristmasElf]

It really is amazing about Texas as the salaries there always were very good and the housing was always affordable. Not to mention the schools are fantastic.

 

[makinorlando]

I live in Orange County FL and I can't believe how the market has changed. I bought my house 3 years ago (closed 5/28/2003), and it has doubled in price since that time. Houses that would go on the market in my area - Waterford Lakes - used to be on the market one or two days, and like "Love2Roam" said, now they sit on the market much longer. I used to see many more "Buy Owner" sales signs around too, but now if they start they way, the seem to change to a realtor before too long!

It also seems that some of those investors that thought they would "flip the house", now are having to lease them. We have some of this in our area - since we are only 5 miles from UCF, and several college students will rent one house! Nothing wrong with renters, but it causes more churn in neighbors!

I am fortunate that my salary "moved" with me as my job did when I relocated from the Suburban Phila area. At that time housing prices my 1600 sq ft twin had a higher market value than my 2100 sq ft single family house w/pool here in Orlando.

Also electric rates have gone up, insurance rates have gone up and of course - taxes as well!

 

[MoniqueU]

I live in Southern California so things haven't been affordable for quite sometime. That being said houses are staying on the market longer and the old my stuff dont stink attitude of sellers should be coming to an end. I am not a bitter would be homeowner either I own in a nice neighborhood. I just think it's silly to listen to my neighbors claim how house rich and how they are going to milk the next guy for every cent.

 

[makinorlando]

I live in Southern California so things haven't been affordable for quite sometime. That being said houses are staying on the market longer and the old my stuff dont stink attitude of sellers should be coming to an end. I am not a bitter would be homeowner either I own in a nice neighborhood. I just think it's silly to listen to my neighbors claim how house rich and how they are going to milk the next guy for every cent.

It always amazes me when I watch "House Hunters" which seems to mainly focus on Calif real estate at the prices of the homes! WOW!

 

[anewvance]

Here in South Florida, it is getting almost impossible to buy a home. The going rate is around $350-$450k. They are turning apt complexs everywhere into condos at $200k each. We bought our very very nice 3 bedroom/3 bath/livingroom/den/garage/porch house for $135k about 4 years ago.... today it's worth almost $300k, that's crazy!

 

[Evil Queen]

I'm in my parents house, they mainly reside in Tenn. They didn't want to sell when I moved in, but didn't want the house left with no one in it.

Between hurricanes, insurance and property taxes (even though their taxes are resonable compared to new comers-they have this house for about 35 years), she's ready to get rid of it.

Two years ago it was valued at $300,000, it's up to about $400-450,000 now. But they are developing the area (the newest condos being built behind/beside us are going for $700,000) with condos and future villas, shopping centers and the realtors estimate in a year or two this house and property will be in the $700,000 range.

We are holding off until next summer to look to put it on the market, when we plan on going back to Tenn. ourselves, so it'll be interesting to see what it goes for.

The market here has slowed down too, I think between hurricanes and taxes most folks can't afford it. I think folks are really surprised how much their property taxes are after buying a house.

My DS23 is going to talk to my mom about buying it himself, but he wants to work something out with her and the family, that he can buy it, but he won't get hit with all those taxes, by leaving it in her name. Not sure if that can really be done or not.

DS10 doesn't want to move to Tenn., but I told them there's no way we can afford to live here, with buying property.

 

[barkley]

northern california chiming in here! our area is considered very affordable as compared to towns just up and down the freeway from us. in fact the bulk of the residents in our area are commuters either down to the bay area or up to the sacramento area. they can't afford a decent home in their work area or don't want to raise their kids there so they commute as much as 6 hours each day. that being said-you likely could not touch a "starter home" for less than the mid 400,000's. but that's better than adjacent areas where the same amount would get you a very small run down condo or townhouse. in fact there are new "affordable housing" programs in some adjacent towns wherein a developer has basicly taken very old apartments, slapped a new coat of paint, some carpet, linolium and a couple of new appliances and converted them into condos geared to "low income" puchasers. these 700 sq ft 1 bedroom units start in the low 500000's (when i saw the income deemed as "low" it occured to me that it was at least double what minimum wage times 2 earners would be-so not exactly feasable for most people).

the housing market has slowed around here-and alot of it's being attributed to the increase in the minimum payment required on credit cards (people cant qualify for what they were able to before) along with an increase in bank repo's about to hit the market (an adjacent county has already seen this happen, so buyers are holding out hoping for much better deals).

our house closes in less than 2 weeks, our buyers feel like they got a great deal (and compared to how much they could have bought in the town they live in or where they work ) but it still blows me away that the home we paid $192,000 for in 1999 sold for $619,000 (and we priced at a lower price to encourage a quick sale). even with over a hundred thousand dollars down-i can't imagine what their payment will be like (i should add, property taxes, special bonds and assessments in my town add close to $1000.00 per month to the base payment-when the property title is transferred to them the property taxes will increase based on the new value so i hope they make some decent income).

the only other "trend" thats popping up around here now was brought to my attention by our realtor who had seen it happening but actualy attended a seminar on it recently that confirmed it-for the youngest buyers in our area-square footage is less desireable than high ceilings and a sense of "openness". as a result smaller homes that meet this criteria are selling for much more per sqaure foot than larger homes.

 

[stm61]

same problem in south NJ. We bought a 3 bedrm, 1 1/2 bath ranch 5 yrs ago for $112,000. Same house is now listed for $240,000. Problem is people moving from NYC/north NJ/Phil area are selling houses there for unbelievable prices, then paying cash for larger houses here. Great for them, bad for those already living here. Taxes are triple what they were 5 yrs ago and there's no end in sight. More houses= more kids= more schools. Schools are funded primarily thru property taxes. Jobs in the area are not paying more then they were then so residents who were here before are being forced to leave. As soon as our house is sold we're out of here, it's just to ridiculous with the taxes, traffic, etc.

 

[Disney Doll]

It is ridiculously expensive. My house, which is a very normal starter type home, a Cape Cod style home, would see for between $400-$450K in my area, which is absolutely ridiculous!!!! 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, living room, kitchen, dining room, about 1800-200 square feet an about 1/3 acre of land.

 

[FreshTressa]

My house is 40 years old, 1640sq feet, 7700sq foot lot, and the same model is on the market now for 499k.

So...starter homes around here are in the 4-500k range.

I guess things have gone up slower around here than in most places though.